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“Will someone please explain, for the rest of the class? Who is that other guy with our mystery soon-to-be-dead psychopath?”
Trevor’s frustration made me want to soothe him but Theo’s arms around my waist were like iron bars. I threw my arms up as I turned as much as I could toward the others.
“That is one of the Rothchild Alphas. He was at my parents’ house with Gavin Rothchild the night Jade and Theo brought me home.”
Growls erupted around me and I whined a little. Even knowing they weren’t angry with me; it was still something to be surrounded by four angry Alphas. Jade tipped her chin and came closer to the screen.
“Are you sure that’s not Gavin standing with him? The picture isn’t great.”
“No, it’s definitely the mystery Alpha, he’s wearing the same thing in all the pictures.”
Her eyes narrowed and she threaded her fingers through the hair on the back of my head while she kept looking at the screen.
“Can you pull up a picture of Gavin Rothchild?”
It took less than a minute and once the two images were side by side, I could see why Jade would have made that leap. They looked like family. Gavin’s hair was a few shades lighter, and their eyes were different colors, but they had the same shape, and their noses were too similar to be a coincidence. The mystery Alpha had to be related to Gavin Rothchild somehow.
“Trevor, will you call in Cole? I hate to bring him in when he needs rest, but I promised I’d tell him if we found anything, and I could use his help.”
He nodded and pulled out his cell. I’d make it up to my friend somehow.
“I’m setting him up with a dedicated space in the barracks, like we have. He’s putting in more work than just about any other employee. We can call it the BullPen’s employee space if it makes him feel weird.”
I looked up at Jade, turning my head until I could kiss her wrist.
“Thank you, Alpha.”
Once again, I allowed myself to get lost in the puzzle before me, but this time I did a deep dive into Pack Rothchild while I waited for Cole to help me. By the time he arrived, I’d pulled all public records about their holdings, financials, and properties. I’d trolled through all three Alphas’ social media and anything else I could find.
The comforting scent of warm linens wrapped around me and I looked for Cole. He was walking over with Trevor and looked like he’d been able to rest and shower at least, which unwound some of the guilt I felt about dragging him back in. Theo tapped my thighs and I stood from his lap. I’d offered several times to move back to my own chair, but he wouldn’t allow it.
“Alright, Biscuit. Now that your bestie is here, we can move to Trevor’s office with all this shit you’ve been printing off and you can explain everything while you eat something.”
Nodding, I moved toward the office, tipping my head to the other two to follow. The food had been packed away into a fridge in the breakroom, so I wasn’t surprised when Miles and Shae came in with all the reheated food. None of them would let me go through what I’d found until I had eaten so I huffed and shoveled food into my mouth as fast as possible. Then I held up my empty plate like a child asking for permission to leave the table. Theo had already handed out the papers I’d printed, and they’d been passed around the group so I could jump in.
“About five years ago, Gavin Rothchild inherited the estate of Joseph Markham, his last living parent. Basically, he was a trust fund baby, and when he joined Pack Rothchild they started up a consulting firm of some kind that did alright but not enough to support their country club lifestyle. I’m guessing he expected a big windfall with the inheritance, but based on everything I could find from the paper trail and tax filings, Joseph Markham was basically broke. They could have sold the family estate but there was a stipulation in the will that the heirs had to agree to sell.”
“More than one? Did Gavin have any siblings or did it mean his pack?”
My nose scrunched at Cole’s words and the prospect of it meaning Gavin’s pack because I hadn’t considered that. Typically when people agreed to officially become a pack and file with the government for all the rights and protections associated with it, they chose one name and all assets became shared. Dissolving a pack was a very messy process and didn’t happen often. It was entirely possible that Markham meant his son’s pack when he implied more than one heir in his will, but my gut said otherwise.
“I think it means our mystery Alpha. It could mean the pack, though. Maybe I just want my theory to be right, but I think they are half-brothers.”
“Why?”
“I looked into Joseph Markham’s finances, and he made monthly payments of five thousand dollars to an account registered to a woman named Violet Rayne for eighteen years beginning thirty-three years ago. He didn’t join his pack until a few years after that first payment so…”
“So Papa Markham had a bastard and he, what, wanted him to inherit?”
I shrugged, not having a real answer for Theo.
“I haven’t been able to find Violet Rayne. It sounds like a stage name, but there might be a trail somewhere.”
I pointed to the papers in Miles' hands before I continued.
“I followed the Pack Rothchild finances and, not long after his father died, Gavin did sell the family estate and reported the profits as being invested in a company named Horus.”
I looked around the room waiting for the clamor of understanding and… crickets.
